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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

When you’ve just roasted a whole, double turkey breast for a household of two people, odds are good that meals for the next several days will involve sandwiches. That’s not a bad thing considering how versatile a turkey sandwich can be, and it’s even better when you’ve just read the recipe for jibaritos in Daisy: Morning, Noon, and Night. A jibarito is a sandwich in which the bread has been replaced by slices of fried plantains. Apparently, the original jibarito was made with beef, but Daisy suggested leftover turkey breast pavochon. This sandwich is usually built like a cubano with a primary meat (turkey in this case but it's often roast pork), ham, swiss cheese, mustard, and sliced pickles, but I omitted the ham and used all leftover turkey. Once assembled, just like a cubano, it’s toasted in a panini press. It sounded delicious but maybe a little on the heavy side considering the ‘bread’ is fried plantains, but I had to give it a try.

Plantains were peeled and sliced lengthwise. Since the plantains I was using were large, I cut each piece in half crosswise as well. They were fried in canola oil for a total of five minutes and were turned at the halfway point. After this initial frying, they were drained on paper towels and allowed to cool just a little. While still warm, they needed to be pounded down to a thickness of one quarter inch. I used a meat tenderizer for this fun task, and they easily flattened out to an even height. After smooshing the plantains down to size, they were fried a second time to crisp them, and again, the frying time was five minutes total with a flip after two and a half minutes. I used firm, green plantains, and they held their shape very well, crisped nicely, and didn’t seem to absorb the oil. The sandwiches were built with slices of the roast turkey, swiss cheese, sliced dill pickles, and mustard. They spent about six minutes in the panini press, and came out looking toasted, golden, and just gooey enough in the middle.

I have to mention again that I was really happy with the texture of the plantain ‘bread.’ It wasn’t mushy or greasy at all, and it delivered a satisfying crunch. Of course, the melted cheese, pickles, and well-flavored turkey were great on the inside too. As I had guessed, this was a filling sandwich. One small portion was enough for a meal for me, but it was a lip-smackingly good meal.

I was drooling just looking at the first photo, never dreaming it was a plantain! And I love them. I'm amazed they didn't break apart when you pounded them. I'm definitely going to try your jibarito sandwiches! Love the turkey/cheese idea too.

The one thing that never ceases to amaze me about food is that you can learn something new everyday! And when your a blogger with foodies from all over the world sharing their recipes you can learn even more than one new thing every day. Thanks for giving me my first one of the day! This is an awesome way to make a Cuban sandwich!

I love the plantain slices!!! That's really neat to use that instead of bread. Love it. One of the things I want try making is mariquitas, which are basically fried plantain chips. But now I was to try making this!!!! It's definitely an awesome twist to a Cuban sandwich.

Jibaritos are the BEST sandwiches -- congrats on making your own! we live in a wonderful neighborhood where jibaritos can be found in almost every restaurant, so I haven't been inspired to make my own -- but I may be now!

Snooty: You know, I thought the same thing about needing a fork and knife. Actually, these plantains held up so well, the sandwiches were pick-upable. The greener the plantain the better for sturdiness. That also prevented them from being sweet.